A Rectification
by Cynical Jackknife
Summary: The Orbital Elevator had been shutdown after Lumine was defeated. With fewer Maverick incidents, it seemed the world finally saw peace. But I shouldn't know this. I should've been dead. I knew that this peace wouldn't last. But I've been given a second chance. I'm not a Maverick, and this time, I'm going to forget the Nightmare. This time, I won't be denied my rectification.
1. Chapter 1: Welcome Back

_**Hey everyone, I just wanted to make sure that going into this, we are all on the same page here. This fanfic is about a certain maverick from Megaman X6 who's backstory intrigued me a little, so I've decided to expand on it. After this first chapter, you'll know completely who I'm talking about, but I wanted to make sure those who came into this story expecting the main protagonist to be X, Zero, Axl, or anyone else will be set straight. Other than that, I hope you enjoy my story! ~CJ  
**_

* * *

**_"The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is a duty of the living to do so for them."_**

**_~Lois McMaster Bujold  
_**

* * *

_**Chapter 1: Welcome Back**_

The blackness of death. It was a cold presence that wrapped around your body and was believed by some to be unforgiving, while others took it as a blessing to escape the madness they lived in. It made everything you possessed and held dear weak and powerless as its darkness enveloped your vision and mental state. It made you think back to the times where you wished, in those moments, you could have had a second chance to make things right. Most of the people I knew back then feared death, while others laughed in its face, facing the day as if they were used to the danger they often encountered. But, if there was one thing that I learned in my time, it was that death was indeed inevitable.

So why did it feel like I've cheated it? Why did I no longer feel imprisoned in the confines of death's firm, cold grip, despite my own figure of ice and sheer chill that I've lived with all of my known life? Even though I couldn't piece it together, I did know one thing.

I had been given a second chance.

"_Rise…."_

A voice penetrated the darkness.

_"Rise…rise…"_

The word echoed in my mind, the four letters becoming one white picture in my black surroundings, so black that I did not bother with trying to find myself in it until I saw those four letters. With their formation, they had shed light in my imprisonment of death, so bright that I could tell through the pain-no, the blackness- that this was it.

This was my escape from my dark descent.

More bright words filled my vision. _"Rise, my dear Wolfang,"_ the voice said. From my void of emptiness, I could not make out any distinctions in the voice, other than that it belonged to a man. At first, the words sounded garbled during my ascension, but the more the words echoed in the darkness, the more I could make them out. The man sounded old or something of elderly age at least. He had a sweet and fatherly tone, as if he was waking a child from a deep slumber. But the more that I pondered on it, the more it confused me.

I really was supposed to be dead. I was destroyed by X and Zero in the North Pole, so why is it that when I try to grip my hands together-

My hands. Good god, I could actually feel my hands! I put them up to my face to see if they were as normal as I expected them to be, only to be sorely disappointed by finding out that my spikes were gone and my claws were relatively blunt. How weird, I thought, that my primary weapons were gone, but in the reflection of my bio-gloves, I could see that my wrist spikes weren't the only thing that changed. My jaw had been unfit of my goring spikes, and the ice shards that usually shielded my neck from the frosty winds were now gone as well. And now that I was looking down at my wrist, my legs came into view, revealing the same results and my hands. It was as if someone had planned to render me defenseless at the time of my resurrection.

The light now fully engulfed the darkness and gave way to a blur of colors, all making their way into my retina scanners at once. Once the master control crystal in my system calibrated the colors accordingly, the scene around me started to take up into shapes first, color coordination second and intricate details third. And with the successful system reboot launched and calibration underway, I immediately noticed three things once my vision was back. The first, I was in a green cyrostasis cubicle full of ice water. The second, there was indeed an old man outside of my cubicle, stationed near a master console system that read out the vitals of my reploid body. The third thing I noticed surprised me the most, however, as it was something I would have never expected.

I wasn't in the North Pole anymore. In fact, the readout on my HUD stated that inside temperature reached levels of about -17 degrees Celsius, while the temperature outside of my capsule was a solid 20. Looking out into the dark surroundings that stood before my capsule, I could see that I was in a rundown warehouse of sorts. Beams and girders were rusted, with some looking bent to the point of collapse. Almost every light was out, except for the ones surrounding my capsule and main console, which had a strewn about mess of wires connecting to various outlets along the walls of the warehouse, some of which I could see while others were hiding in the darkness.

Upon examining all of these things, I looked to the old man and saw that he was busy overriding the console's cryostasis controls. I could hear him saying something, but I couldn't quite hear what, only something about a "miracle" and "from just a fragment" being tossed about here and there. With a flash of a few button presses and password screens proposing themselves onto the monitor, it looked as if the old man knew what he was doing, but I couldn't tell. For a few minutes, I simply stood there, paralyzed in my capsule, watching the man perform his work. The password screens and control system monitors started to lessen in frequency, making me doubt that the man would actually complete his tasks. But it wasn't until one screen in particular came up that my hope was reinstated.

On the last screen was a diagnosis of my resurrection. My vitals, my memory unit, even my master control crystal were all laid out on one screen full of data, where an animated 3D portrayal of my bio-skeleton was rotating on its own, showing all signs of functionality. Soon after the 3D animation arose, a small box appeared with the following:

_Diagnosis complete: Vitals, Crystal, Memory, Bio-Skeleton at Excellent Performance._

_ID confirmed: Blizzard Wolfang_

_DNA Cross Reference and Replication: Matched and Accepted_

_Type: Reploid_

_Order: Investigation_

_Sex: Male_

_Class: Canis_

All of my information. It was right there.

The old man pressed passed the interface and faced another.

_Warning: Release will trigger system reboot and re-arm all functions of contained specimen. Are you sure you want to release restraints?_

"I'm more than sure." I could see him pressing onto the massive console keyboard as the options _Yes_ and _No _came into view. He then spoke to the computer, "You know as well as I do, Alice. This reploid is the one. If we want to make things right, you'll let me bring him back as I please."

If I wasn't paralyzed in my capsule, I would have laughed at the old man myself. I mean seriously, as if his age wasn't enough reason to be acting weird, he was starting to-

_"Acknowledged, Dr. Rose. I shall prepare the specimen for immediate release."_

All I could do was stare.

The old man looked back to me, his stern face lighting up into a bright smile. "Ah! I see you're already awake. Much as I expected from a reploid such as yourself…"

_What?_

I could hear an alarm go off somewhere inside of the warehouse, and the lights themselves started to rotate as if a major project was about to be brought onto an assembly line. The phrase "_Stand back, disarming cryostasis capsule" _blared all throughout the industrial warehouse as the old man made his way over to me. As he positioned himself, completely relaxed, to the front of the capsule, I heard the words from the master control again.

_"Capsule disarmed, releasing cryostasis."_

As the master control repeated the phrase, I felt the liquid that held me captive slowly start to drain into the holes at the bottom of the capsule, connected to tubes that led out into the darker reaches of the warehouse. As if it even held me captive in the first place, I was already able to move freely. These temperatures were nothing to me compared to the icy winds and sheer misery that I held at the North Pole.

The master control, Alice, spoke again. _"Cryostasis successfully recovered. Initiating opening sequence in thirty seconds."_

This was it.

I was soon going to be free.

The old man simply stared at me, with the same bright smile on his face, as if he was receiving a gift from a friend. He seemed like a fatherly figure, his dusty overcoat carrying a few oil and grease stains, his slim figure but old complexion making for an appearance that can only be described as experienced. His work pants were just as ordinary as the rest of his attire, along with a pair of black work boots that matched the color of his tie. But behind all of the attire and prestige, something about him gave me an uneasy feeling, and I found it in his eyes. If given a glance over, no one would have noticed, and I'm sure I wouldn't have had it been for my advanced sight. But when I looked into his eyes, something twitched in them that wasn't completely natural. Something was moving within his pupils.

The slight variations of shifting gears within a larger machine.

His eyes were completely robotic.

_**"Yes…now you see, my child."**_

_How did he-?! _Wait…no, it wasn't the old man's voice.

It was _another_ voice.

_**"You and I are one in the same…"**_

Alice piped up. _"Releasing cryostasis capsule latch in 3…2…1…"_

Immediately I felt the pressure decrease. Air flooded my capsule, and the light-

_**"You and I share the same fate…"**_

There was so much light, I shielded my eyes-

_**"You and I, my child…"**_

The light shifted. I removed my hands. The old man was saying something, but I couldn't hear him. I tried to make out the words. I saw his mouth curve into the letters G sound, followed by the open mouth A-

_**"Together, we will succeed…"**_

The voice, it continued. I couldn't stop it.

The A sound slowly shifted towards the grinding teeth, signaling a T-

"_**Together, we will show them…"**_

Transitioning from T to-

"_**X, Zero, the Maverick Hunters, the world…"**_

My HUD was done calculating the words. I knew exactly what the old man was saying.

And-

_**"We will…"**_

"…izzard…Blizzard…"

We will-

_**"Destroy them…"**_

_We will-_

"Blizzard…"

_**"WE WILL DESTROY THEM ALL!"**_

I took my hands and clasped them around my head as a giant pressure filled my circuit board and flooded my master control. It was as if someone had released a gas inside of my head, waiting for the pressure to make my head to explode.

_**"WE WILL DESTROY THEM ALL MY CHILD!"**_

I screamed. I tried to say something, anything that would make it end, but it seemed like my head was going to explode from sheer pressure.

But suddenly, it sounded as if the voice was dying out, bubbling into something else more menacing. The phrase stopped repeating, but the voice stayed all the same. It only laughed at me.

Now, its maniacal laugh was all I could hear.

I begged for it to stop.

_No…_

I could barely hear the old man's voice over my thoughts.

"_Blizzard…"_

_ Please…_

Another laugh.

_Stop…_

And another.

My eyes were closed, my hands were clasped around my head, but it didn't matter. I couldn't stop it. The madness, it only continued. And there was nothing I could do about it. It was the voice. That voice, I just wanted to destroy it, just pry my head open and-

_"Blizzard!" _

The old man.

_"BLIZZARD!"_

The voice stopped.

And I stood there, with my hands over my head, but eyes open.

I was still in the warehouse.

The old man, who was still in front of me, put an arm on my shoulder. I grabbed it out of instinctive fear as I heard him reel back and say, "Whoa, Blizzard! Take it easy, you're not under his control anymore!"

I still held onto his arm with a death grip.

I wanted answers.

"Who's control?!" I growled, tightening my grip even harder. "Tell me now. Tell me who was inside my head!"

The old man yelped. "I-It was him! Y-Your old creator!" He hunched over against my claws.

My grip softened as my eyes widened with fear. "You don't mean-"

"Yes," he said, "Your old creator, he was the voice you heard!"

It was-

"No-"

"He created you to follow him."

_No-!_

"He created you to help bring about his plans for destruction."

I released the old man's arm and growled. "He's dead!"

He had to be lying. He had to be-

He straightened up and looked at me. "How…" he gasped. "How do you know that?"

Again, I growled. "He was killed by the Maverick Hunters, X and Zero. They destroyed him and his DNA a long time ago!"

He stood there, dumbfounded. "And you believe that?"

"I'm positive!" I exclaimed.

The old man's expression turned sour. His eyes creased. His mouth turned into a frown. Suddenly, his voice grew grave. "Then how do you know?"

"How do I know that he's dead?"

"Yes, that's exactly right," he said.

I pulled up a console control system on my HUD interface and searched for anything about his death. I knew what I was talking about. I knew it was in here somewhere. I had confidence that it was somewhere within my data bank, otherwise it wouldn't be so crystal clear to me. Every picture of my existence, every video catalog of my memories as an investigator for the Nightmare Team and my initial creation, I swam through it all.

But nothing showed up.

My anger was slowly starting to seep into my control. "Gah…search memory log, keyword 'Gate'!"

The images flew back and forth as my memories dove deeper, but ultimately nothing came up but one picture. It was taken from a downward angle, and it was of a blue armored reploid holding a hand cannon straight at me. I noticed the figure as X, the famous Maverick Hunter.

I also noticed that this was my demise.

"Search again! Keywords 'Gate' and 'Demise'!"

Again photos swam back and forth through my HUD as the search dove into deeper and darker areas of my memory bank.

Again it came up empty, except for that one picture.

I began to panic. "No way…"

"I'll ask again," the old man stated. "How can you know that Gate is dead…"

Nothing in my data bank shows of Gate's demise.

This-

"…when you, Blizzard Wolfang…"

This should mean-

"Were already dead to begin with?"

Within the realm of my now living state, I could not explain to anyone, nor to myself, how I knew of such knowledge. My data bank was empty and was showing no signs of Gate's death outside of public information confirmations, yet I could still hear his voice inside of my head, clear as day. "This…" I whispered, "This must be a joke! There's no way I could remember something like this!"

"I know," was all the old man could say.

"I-I died before I could even hear about it." For some reason, I looked down at my palms.

And I wondered if they were even mine anymore.

The old man must have seen what I was getting at. He took a step towards me.

I flailed as I got down onto four paws. "You…!" My anger began to rise again. "What have you done to me?!"

"Easy, Wolfang…"

My growl grew into a snarl. "You'll pay for what you did to me!"

And I lunged. With all of my powers gone, the only choice I had was to dive full force and use my claws, or what was left of them. In the midst of my lunge, time seemed to slow to a bare minimum. I could see the reflection of myself in the lenses of his glasses, my fangs outstretched and snarling, my claws extended and poised to strike. I was a monster poised in mid-air, slowly descending down onto easy prey. But what surprised me the most was the man's complexion. He wasn't scared, or else he would be screaming. He was mad, lest he lunge himself at me at the same moment I came upon the decision to strike. Instead, he stood there, the glare of his sunglasses shrouding his eyes in a bright light, his body stone cold, and it was at that moment that I realized he wasn't scared, angry, or even surprised.

He was _waiting, _and in the midst of my anger, I hadn't prepared myself for the old man's preparations. I was almost at his throat, my claws barely touching the hair of his synthetic flesh-

He snapped his fingers. _"Alice!"_

My side erupted into a wave of pain as the scene quickly went from the still old man to a blur of motion, finally ending with my body hitting the side of some crate inside of the warehouse. I couldn't tell, as my vision couldn't fixate itself onto anything. Everything became one massive swirl of dull, assorted colors, as I tried to pull myself off the ground, ultimately failing and landing on my side of impact. I howled as the pain seared up my ribs and into my backbone. In a sick and twisted way, I was actually happy. The pain I felt caressed my body while at the same time it completely immobilized me. It signaled that my nerve sensors were functioning as they should and stating that I was completely incapable of regaining composure.

It meant that I was indeed alive.

A white form arose in the blur of colors that could only be recognizable as the old man himself. He walked over and kneeled down, and I could see the brown outline of a hand slowly extend itself towards me. It soared over my head, and placed itself along my ribs, to where the mysterious force reeled me into the crate. I yelped as it applied pressure to the point of impact, and the hand reeled back. I could barely make out the old man say something along the lines of, "…almost broken, Alice…10% lower next time."

Alice. That machine, it was his bodyguard. The hand formed in my vision again and slowly drifted over my eyes. I could hear the old man clearly now, saying, "Relax now, Wolfang. I'm going to repair you now." He said it soothingly, as if he was talking to his own son, and felt nice. "The voice will be gone by the time you wake up. Everything will be fine."

His ran across my eye lids and gently forced them down, and I no longer saw a sea of swirling colors. Instead, I saw my internal HUD bring up a notification:

_Commencing system shutdown in t-minus ten seconds._

I must have whimpered, because I heard the old man say something to me as the void where I had stayed was starting to greet me again.

But these words were going to save me from its cold reaches.

"Welcome to the world of the living, Blizzard Wolfang."


	2. Chapter 2: Just Like Me

_**Chapter 2: Just Like Me**_

Hunter Base had been everything but busy in the last few days. Monday through Friday, incidents were arising at a snail's pace. Maverick mechaniloid incidents around the world signaled no patterns of attack and usually pointed to spontaneous malfunction. New recruits coming into the base had plenty of time to gain experience in the training arena while the higher ups handled the real cases until the recruits were ready, which was always determined by examination by the higher ups themselves. Ranks were then divided up based on how well the recruits did against the top hunters of the base, or one of each rank, starting from E and moving on to A. However, with the main examiners in the A-Rank being X and Zero, no one was ever promoted to A-Rank Hunter. However, most reploids who signed up knew that they wouldn't amount up to nearly anything as much as either of them, so they didn't mind. In a way, everything was peaceful and it seemed like things were finally starting to wind down from the new generation reploid incident that had plagued the world a year before. No major concerns, no news on leading gang members, just peace and quiet.

And Axl hated it. With his legs crossed on top of a nearby box in the central command center, Axl sat in the navigator communication room for hours rotating his twin shooters around his fingers until he thought they were going to wear out his titanium coating. "Hey, Pallette! Mind telling me why for the last few weeks you've never let me handle any Maverick incidents?"

Pallette ignored him, continuing to extract details about a rogue mechaniloid. "Uh huh, yes. New Abel City? Okay, we'll send some hunters down to deal with the situation."

"Pallette."

She brought out a pen and paper. "Yes…yes…no, we cannot send out any A-Ranked Hunters as of right now, but don't worry, the hunters we're sending are perfectly capable of dealing with mechaniloids!"

"Pallette…"

"Just hang in there! Hunters will be arriving in a maximum of three minutes!"

Axl was fed up with waiting. He marched up behind the unknowing navigator and snagged the ear piece out of her metallic braid and put it up to his ear. "Hey, this is Axl, and yes I do accept fan mail!" He snorted out of laughter as he heard silence on the other line, signaling the man had hung up, but stopped when the power of his navigator's elbow jabbed into his ribs. He let out a squeal. "Ow, that hurt! What gives, Pallette?!"

The emerald green navigator with the blond curls stood up. "That's equipment for qualified navigators only! You're not supposed to use it!" She swiped the ear piece out of his hand and placed it ever so delicately back in its place. "And I told you already, you're not going to be given another mission for awhile, so you might as well make yourself useful and help around the base. Otherwise, I'll give the mission to either X or Zero when the time comes!"

He let out a groan.

"Keep it up, and I'll give it to both of them and leave you behind!"

"Oh, come on Pallette!" An even deeper groan emitted from him as he tried to plead with her. "It's been weeks since I've gone on a mission! At least let me go so I can keep my skills up. You don't know what could happen if I have a sloppy trigger finger!" He went down onto two knees and brought his clasped hands skyward. "Please, Pallette! I _need_ a mission! I _need_ something to do!"

"Oh, save it Axl." Pallette huffed as she crossed her arms and looked away, anywhere but at the Maverick Hunter. "If you wanted to keep your skills up, you always have the training arena. Your processors will be more than refreshed after a few trips to it every once in awhile."

The groveling continued as Axl decided to bring out his signature move. "Pallette…" With a whimper, he managed to make Pallette acknowledge him all the while he worked his puppy dog face charm. "It's only one mission. I'll do anything for one mission…"

Pallette looked down at the pathetic hunter. She always wondered why X ever promoted him to A-Rank when he always acted like such a new recruit. A sly smile arose on her face as the thought ran through her mind. "So, you need something to do?"

Axl's face lit up like the sun. "I do!"

She held in a laugh. "You'll do anything?"

"Yes! Anything! Just let me do something!"

"Well," she giggled, "Since you're so desperate, there is one thing you can do…"

At the moment Axl couldn't have been any happier. He had finally found something that rid him of his boring routine of nothing. He was never one to beg, but when he was, which was only on a rare occasion, he found that it always produced fruitful results.

But now, looking back on it, he realized that the results he always wanted were never gained when Pallette was involved. Standing there in the halls of the comm center with a mop and a bucket, Axl was now more focused on thinking of ways to dispose of Pallette rather than obtain his original objective.

He could see the notifications on Pallette's screen appear every time an incident seemed to rise, which seemed to be every fifteen minutes or so, and groups of hunters gathered around her from all ranks, besides A, to hear their objectives. Rogue mechaniloid in Noah's Park, two teams of ten D and E ranked hunters cleared for dispatch to deal with the damage.

Child's play.

A team of six C ranked hunters cleared to deal with a few thieves in New Abel City, under the leadership of a B ranked reploid.

Would've been done in ten seconds flat.

Even a group of B ranked hunters was given clearance to hunt down the loose mechaniloid from Noah's Park under navigation from Layer.

_They must be joking_, he thought. He went on a mission that required him to keep one alive for sampling! Destroying one would have been no problem at all!

He stood there in his cleaning apron, staring on with gritted teeth. Really, he figured, if these hunters wanted a real challenge, they would have gone a few rounds with him in the training arena. He imagined they were all too scared to deal with someone other than X or Zero because they didn't have any dirt on his abilities. They've never seen what he could do, making it way more fun and exciting. He was an equal amongst the other A-Rank Hunters, making him another potential leader for examination.

So why did everyone sign up to be examined by either X or Zero? He was just as powerful as they were, and in a way, more versatile. Sure, X could copy abilities and use them with his X-Buster, but so could Zero with his Z-Saber and him as well with his twin shooters. And to top it off, he had become the best long-range marksmen as of last month's trials. He had X beat with his flying capabilities for higher targets and surpassed Zero in range, making him quite capable of being an A-Rank Hunter, yet whenever he checked his schedule as an A-Rank Examiner, nobody had ever signed up to be tested.

No one except-

"Hey, Axl!"

_Oh no. _He gulped hard. He hesitated in turning around, not wanting to face the reality of it. "Not her," he muttered, "Anything but her right now…_"_

When he did turn around, he was greeted with the sight of a hunter running down the hall towards him, her cheerful voice and perky attitude almost a visible aura as each step she took held on to its own spring. Her armor, an icy blue, along with her pure white hair protruding from the back of her head unit in free flowing motion, made her stand out among every other reploid with the exception of Lifesaver. Her sapphire blue eyes seemed to be her best feature, however, as they complemented her seemingly crystalline form. Blue gemstones that reflected the light, giving her a shine that diamonds would be envious of. From experience, he knew she was always a cheery reploid to be around. She never had a beef with anyone, and she always was in the mood to have fun. However in Axl's mind, today was not about fun. More so, today was about escape in any form possible. He didn't want to be bothered by anything more than what Pallette assigned him, but it looked like it didn't matter. He was yet again going to be fed a spoonful of sunshine.

Ready or not, he braced himself as he saw Snowflake make her way towards him. He could hear her giggling already. "Axl! I need to tell you something! Oh?" With a misstep, she planted her foot in wet tile and began to slide.

"Hey!" he called out to her. "Watch out, I just mopped this hall!"

But it was too late. "Wahhh!" she wailed. With her speed, she managed to slide at least ten feet and right into Axl, sending them both, and the mop, crashing to the ground in a watery mess. For a minute, all that Axl could hear was the laughing of the other hunters as he laid there, eyes crossed and covered in soap water. It wasn't until he heard a female voice start to moan that he began to see straight. "Ugh…"

He sat up, feeling his head for any minor bumps or dents in his hardware, and saw a sprawled out Snowflake lying in front of him. "Ughhh…Axl?" She got up onto her knees. "Axl, are you okay? I didn't think the floor was that wet…"

He sighed. "Yeah, I'm fine," he tilted his head up to look at her, "You should really be careful around here, everyone's busy and you might hurt yourself if you continue to be reckless like this."

Her eyes flittered before they stared at the ground, a rosy blush forming on her cheeks. "Oh, I'm sorry Axl. I didn't know I was being such a troublemaker…"

Normally, he wouldn't have cared what happened. Usually he was the one to provoke running in the halls. It was probably some of Pallette's strict ruling that was starting to rub off on him. "It's okay, Snow." With a grunt, he hoisted himself up and offered out his hand. "So, what was it that you wanted to tell me?"

"Hm? Oh!" She took his hand and brought herself up to his level. "Tomorrow is the anniversary of the Jakob Elevator's grand opening! The whole city is putting on a show as a means of thanking the Maverick Hunters for protecting the elevator and keeping it fully functional so far!" She beamed a smile at him and stated, "I was just coming to confirm about the fireworks!"

Axl's eyes went wide. He totally forgot about the event in his boredom. But he couldn't show it. _Not here_, he thought. He played a smile across his face, "Ah! Of course! Pfft, I knew that…" he said as he waved his hand dismissively, "What about them?"

A look of deflation shot across Snowflake's demeanor. "You don't remember about the fireworks?" she asked.

Axl gulped, and soon found himself in another hole. Without thinking, he simply said, "T-That fall kinda knocked all of my sense out of me. I'm not sure we're on the same wavelength," he let out a nervous laugh, but her look did not change. Deciding again, he tried to take a more conservative route. "It was about…how pretty they were gonna be, right?" With a processing and understanding of the words spoken, Axl soon found himself very close to an irritated Snowflake. "S-Snow-?"

"Earlier this month, you promised me that we'd watch the fireworks together!" She planted a finger onto his chest plate forcefully, "You even told me that you would show me the city!"

Axl just simply stared, his mouth agape. Two things he had forgotten, one being a promise. His voice was barely a whisper when he said the words, "I-I did?" but he still wished he could have taken them back.

A finger turned into a palm, and Snowflake shoved Axl back. Under her force and the water on the tiles beneath his feet, he found himself on the ground, looking up at a sore Snowflake. An outcry tried to escape his mouth, but the words never came as a finger was placed on his lips.

"I can't believe you, Axl! You told me- no, you _promised_ me- that you would take this one night to hang out with me!" She grabbed onto his chest plate and dragged him into the air, again bringing their faces into close proximity. "Out of all the times that I've helped you with your 'bored' antics, I expected you to take some time out for me too!"

Axl broke free from her grip and landed on the ground, but almost slipped. Regaining composure, he told her, "Look, Snow! I know I may have forgotten, but I'm not trying to weasel out of this! It's just…well, I haven't fought any mavericks in a while, so I've been a little cooped up. It's all I've thought about for the past week and a half!" He saw her countenance form into one of disbelief as she turned her back on him. He grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to look him in the eyes. "Snow, I promise you on my role as a hunter and your best friend, I will not let you watch those fireworks alone." He held out his hand. "If I do, under any circumstances, you have every right to kick my ass."

"That's not very hard to do…" he heard someone say, someone who sounded gruff, but calm. Gritting his teeth, he dismissed the comment from the hunter, who he knew all too well, and looked at Snowflake. "Well?" he said, "Do we have a deal?"

Snowflake looked into his eyes with furrowed brows. "And?"

He rolled his eyes. "And, I promise to take you on a tour of Neo Arcadia," a smile rose from his face, "And I promise you'll love it. I know I do!" His gaze held strong for a few seconds until he realized Snowflake's expression hadn't changed prior to his argument. He was about to question her until he saw her frowning face turn into a gleaming grin, and he was pulled into an embracing hug. When the hug had ended, he put his hands on her shoulders. "Hey," he laughed, "I know I can be dumb, but you gotta admit, I look for fun because you know I'm full of it. You know that right?"

"You're indeed full of something, Axl," she giggled. With a flash of enthusiasm, she clasped her hands together and took a couple steps back. "Well, c'mon! I didn't sign up for that examination for nothing, you know!"

_Oh yeah._

She waved a finger in front of his face, "It's your job to test my abilities to see if I fit the qualities of an A-Rank Hunter. After all, you _are_ an examiner, right?"

Up to that point, it took all of his energy just to get her out of the mood she was about the celebration; he had completely forgotten the initial reason she came. Even if he had to be reminded every single week. Over and over again. He sighed, "Yeah, I guess so."

"Well, let's go then!" She began to run for the end of the hall when she felt a hand hold her back. "Hm?" She looked behind her and saw Axl grinning.

"Go on ahead. I'll meet you there," he simply said. "I still have this mess to clean up. The one _you_ caused, anyway."

Snowflake's first expression held a tone of surprise, but it soon turned into a smug one as she lifted her head to the ceiling. "Hmph!" she exclaimed, before looking back and saying, "You just want to figure out your game plan to take me on. Well, no matter then, you won't beat me this time. Game plan or not, I'll prove that I have what it takes to be an A-Rank Hunter." She pulled free from his grip and took to a running stance. "Better bring you're a-game, Axl."

And with that, she left the prototype in her dust and made way for the examination stage. As Axl watched her, he wondered what kind of trouble he had to go to in order to be stuck with her. She was merely a troublemaker, someone who thought she could become great by beating and competing with the best. Ever since the day she had been repaired from her depravity in the North Pole, he had been in charge of teaching her the basics of being a hunter, despite her faulty wiring. He had dealt with her naïve sense of confidence, her seemingly endless energy, and her arrogance. For any other reploid, it would've been enough to retire early. But for Axl, it was nothing out of his league; if anything, she was a copy of him in every way. The thought of it made him snicker in joy. "Just like me…"

"She's already inherited your naïve personality," came the same voice from behind. "Who knows, give her a few years and she could be your personal clone."

Again, Axl recognized the voice as one of a male reploid's; authoritative but calm at the same time. He turned around to see none other than Zero standing not too far from the watery mess. "Zero!" Axl exclaimed, almost slipping again on the wet ground, "I didn't know they were giving out missions to A-Rank Hunters now!" He looked around to see the other hunters, but there were none there. "Hey, what gives? Why are you the only one here?"

Zero chuckled. "Because I'm not going on a mission," he pointed to the comm center, "I actually need to ask Layer a question about some of the mavericks in the training arena. Apparently, someone's been tampering with the system, and now those mavericks have been replaced with Lumine copies instead."

"Woah...weird stuff. Anyway, I'm off to give Snowflake her examination," said Axl. "Maybe this time she'll actually be a challenge. She comes in every day asking to be examined-"

"Just like you did…" Zero muttered.

"-and she just expects people to bend around in order to fit HER schedule-"

Zero sighed in annoyance. _You've no idea_, he thought.

"Don't you think that's a little ridiculous?" Axl finally concluded. "That's the only thing I can't stand about her, you know? Other than that, she's pretty cool-"

He was silenced by a sudden palm being thrown in his face. "Alright, I get it! She's annoying sometimes," Zero said, pointing to a nearby clock. The time was 1:24 PM. "Your examination starts at 1:30. You better get a move on or else you'll be late."

Immediately, Axl had filled up with enough excitement to drop all of his materials and started running, until he heard his materials hit the floor. Then he remembered his job and Pallette's words. "Wait," he said facing Zero, "Who's gonna clean up this mess?"

"Just go, I'll get another hunter to take care of it," he said, before muttering under his breath, "Maybe Douglas, just because he never really works anymore..."

A smile stretched across Axl's face as he turned towards the end of the corridor, now sprinting towards the examination stage. "I owe ya one, Zero!" he called as he rounded a corner. In his mind, he figured that the sooner he finished examination, the sooner he would be open for a mission. _I don't care what Pallette thinks_, he thought. _I'm going to get a mission, even if it breaks protocol_.

Zero watched him round the corner and make his way out of sight. "Still a clown as always, I see." He turned towards the comm center and made his way towards Layer's seat which was promptly located two seats away from Pallette, with Alia's seat belonging in the middle. On his way, however, he saw that Pallette had stopped working. He would have disregarded the fact, but something about her stiff figure worried him. From the look of things, she wasn't even _moving_. The screen on her monitor sure seemed busy, but the navigator took no attempt to address the points of concern on her computer. Fearful of a malfunction, he decided to approach her. He placed his hand on her shoulder and found that she was as cold as ice. "Pallette?" he asked. "You okay?"

"Yes, Zero," was her immediate response. Without even acknowledging him, she pushed his hand gently off of her shoulder. Then, in almost a hushed whisper, she added, "Layer can't take your question, she's busy."

"Oh…" was the only thing he could say. _Something's wrong with her, _Zero thought. _This is definitely not normal for her. _"Well, uh, let me know when she's free, okay?"

With no response, he slowly started to back away and make his way back down the previous corridor, planning to teleport soon. He kept looking back, however, at the stone cold navigator, until his gaze was broken off by the rounding of the corner. When he was out of earshot, he pulled up his messaging board on his communication interface, and made his way down the contacts until he got to X. He opened up a new draft and wrote his message;

_"X, I passed by Pallette not too long ago after speaking with Axl. However, something seemed wrong when I saw her. When I asked her if she was alright, it was as if she expected it."_ He looked around to make sure he was alone before he returned to his writing._ "She told me that she was fine, but I think she's lying. No acknowledgment, no attempt at conversation, nothing. Just straightforward answers, which leads me to believe she is indeed upset."_

He paused in his writing. He knew that the navigator had been upset in their time of conversation; he could _feel_ it in the air. However, he wasn't too sure what brought her to be like this. Biting his lip, he continued writing.

"_I'm not entirely sure, but I think that this has something to do with Axl. Don't quote me on it, though. Anyway, I'm heading to the inner city area to check up on the hunters taking care of the thieves. If you get the chance, find Axl and see if he can fix this situation. If not, I'm sure he'll find a way to make it worse."_

He reread the words and made sure his message was thorough before sending it. With a confirmation of the sent message, he brought up his coordinate grid, confirmed the location of his target, and warped down to the surface.

With most of the hunters now taking care of the thieves and rogue mechaniloid, the comm center was pretty quiet. However, the quiet wasn't what she wanted, as she sat there stone cold in her thought, wondering how a simple celebration could have gone from so trivial to overbearingly difficult to manage. She wanted someone to tell her that everything was fine, that she needn't worry so much over one reploid. As the green in her chest plate started to settle into her soul, she wondered if reploids could even cry as much as they could feel sadness. _One year,_ she thought. _It's been one year since she came, and she's already won him over._

Suddenly anxious to seize the free time, Pallette stood and briefly explained to Layer that she was retiring for the day, and that if she needed anything she could contact Alia for assistance. She didn't even give Layer the time to ask what brought her to leave, as she had already exited the comm room and entered the far right corridor that led to the elevator. Passing few reploids, she hastened her pace to a fast walk until she reached the elevator doors. Once she was inside, she made her way to the top floor and navigated through another corridor where the walls were all glass, allowing her to see all the way down into the city. She sighed as she could see couples, both human, reploid, and mixed walking around aimlessly and enjoying the splendor of company they brought to each of their significant others. Rounding a corner, she had been introduced to a waiting room where a help desk stood in the center, manned by a single female reploid with red curls, a white chest plate, and blue décor. Her eyes shined golden as she saw her favorite navigator coming her way. "Good day, Ms. Pallette!" she said as the navigator approached her. "Retiring for the evening, I may assume?"

"Pretty much," she sighed, "I'm going to need the key this time, though. If you don't mind, that is."

A look of surprise passed the clerk's face. "Ooh, what's the big occasion this time?" she asked, a smile slowly crossing her lips.

"It's nothing special. I just want the keys this time."

"Someone special coming over later?"

"No…" Annoyed at this point, she tried to be more straightforward. "I want to work on the project with no interruptions."

"Ohhhh, I get it now!" the clerk exclaimed as she reached under the desk. When she got the keys in her hands, she presented them in her palm to the navigator. "The secret project, right?"

"Shhhhh!" Pallette brought a finger to her pursed lips and snatched the keys from her friend's hand. "It won't be so secret if you keep talking about it!" she whispered.

The clerk seemed to have forgotten the definition. "Oh! Sorry…" she replied with a sheepish smile.

Once she had the keys, Pallette made her way past the clerk and positioned herself in front of the doorway. On the lip of the frame was a DNA scanner, fit to make sure the trespasser was indeed someone of higher value. It only worked if the reploid was involved with navigational work, medical, or highly ranked hunters. However, since X or Zero never took up on the offer to have a top level room, both have gone to the desk clerk, Serenity, and Signas. Other than that, no one else had permission to enter, other than the janitor that tended to the security footage.

As she stood in the doorway the scanner went to work, catching every part of her external form and matching it to DNA and class, or more-so, job. Once the scanner finished, a diagnosis on the pad next to the doorframe stated her name and a request of confirmation represented by a 4 digit code. She pressed her finger to the digital keypad.

_5…6…8…3, _she repeated in her head_._ With a final submission, the pad accepted her input and the barrier in the doorway shutdown. As she made her way through, the voice of the desk clerk stopped her as she just made it out of the frame. "It's strange," she said.

The words didn't really upset Pallette, but more-so freeze her in trying to understand. Without her responding, the clerk went on. "That girl, she's special. More-so than maybe all of us realize. You said her memories show that she's taken on Mavericks as strong as the ones behind the fight for control of the Orbital Elevator, even Mavericks like Sigma himself, yet she's barely able to defeat the one who acts so naïve in battle, just like her. Or is it the other way around?" From around the corner Pallette heard a giggle escape the clerk. "Hehehe! With some luck, maybe you'll find out who was responsible for her creation! You'll be able to find out all of her capabilities then."After a couple of seconds, Serenity had gone back to work manning her post, although she was now humming to the tune of an unknown melody.

_Hmph. Little does she know I've made progress_, Pallette thought. With a huff, she made her way down the small hall way consisting of only seven rooms, with hers being on the utmost end. She approached the doorway and noticed that out of her usual decorative display of smiling suns drawn onto the door in yellow and white chalk, a note was hanging on her door knob. When she picked it up, she noticed that it only said three words: _"Be careful, Pallette."_

Knowing no doubt that it was from Serenity, Pallette took it and placed it on her counter-top when she unlocked the door and made her way inside. With the placement of the note, Pallette turned on the light to examine her own personal base. To the left of her was her own personalized bed, fit with frilly flower comforters and a data link cable that connected to the headboard when she had to power down for the night. To the right was an assortment of random files that contained specialized routes for undisclosed mission locations from the latest pandemic. The wall she was facing was a two way mirror, allowing her to look outside into the world and see the beauty in the city, without ever having to worry about people or reploids, despite the massive height, ever spying on her. However, the two way mechanism had another feature as well. With a clear of the throat, Pallette declared her command to the room's AI System, or "Silla" as she liked to call it. "Silla! Initiate system start-up!"

Immediately, the light had dimmed to a near midnight vision. The AI spoke. "_Initiating. Resuming recent project."_

"Excellent!" With a crack of her knuckles, she walked up to where the wall had begun to change form. What was a dark mirror in the darkness had now fully illuminated into a massive blue touch screen, fit with holographic images and schematics that were now fully engulfing the mirror from left to right. It would seem, to a foreigner of this room, that the wall had been completely overrun with nothing but writing and blueprints. To Pallette, it was just the beginning of a long research project she was dying to complete. Pictures of joints, arms, internal gears and software, and even memory chips were scattered all across the wall on the left side. On the right were layers upon layers of notes she had taken, some compiled into the code to be known as solidified facts, while others remained put until she had the time to prove them true through trials. It was in the center however, that stood the centerpiece of the whole project. Ready, Pallette brought her glasses to her eyes, and looked over already completed work. "Okay…" she said, going through preparations, "Let's see what makes you so tick."

Upon the wall, in the center of the mirror, was the fully printed body of Snowflake, accompanied with labeling, more partial than complete, of each functioning limb and gear.

With a swift hand and stable mind, Pallette went to work.


End file.
